1861

Two bells out of France

The bells were cast at Valence in 1861, by the foundry of the widow Grégoire, and the man who paid for them put his name in the bronze: Casimir Grégoire. Fr Joseph Grégoire, who was building the church while they were being made, had been born at Valence himself — donor, founder and priest, one name and one town. They did not ring here for another eleven years. The crates came by sea and got as far as the District Collector's office at Tirunelveli, and there they stayed. What moved them in the end was the metal itself: someone looked at the bells and saw the cross cast into them, and Our Lady with the Child in her arms, and knew they belonged in a Catholic church, and said so to the Collector. In 1872 they were hung at last, one in each of the two towers. People here still say that when the two ring together there is a sweetness in the sound that is heard nowhere else in this country.